GSK China VP confesses in bribery scandal

After a host of allegations were leveled out against the British drug major’s China operations, GSK China’s vice president and operations manager publicly accepts bribery charges on national television

Singapore: A day after Chinese police made the names of those involved in one of the country's biggest scandal involving a major pharmaceutical company public, GlaxoSmithKline China's vice president and operations manager made a public confession.

Speaking at an interview on China Central Television's (CCTV) flagship evening news programme, Liang Hong, vice president and operation manager appeared to be talking from his detention cell.

The 49-year-old VP said, "Having spent time reflecting over the past couple of days, I think the money we spent to run our business was too much. All of these costs (of our bribery) were included in the price of the drugs. The money we spent running the business accounted for about 20 percent-to-30 percent of the drug price."

The employees who are currently being probed under detention are Liang Hong, vice president and operation manager, Zhang Guowei, vice president and human resources, Zhao Hongyan, legal affairs director and Huang Hong, business development manager. Investigators also have questioned the corporate representative of the Shanghai Linjiang International Travel Agency.

Police chief, Gao Feng, who is leading the investigation into GSK, claimed that GSK hid the corruption in its accounts by over inflating the sum paid to middlemen for services such as conferences. The extra money would then be split: some going to bribe doctors, some retained by the middlemen and some given as kickbacks to GSK executives.